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Patrick Duffy talks Dallas

Patrick Duffy on being Bobby Ewing and Larry Hagman as new Dallas premieres Season 2 on Jan. 28.

Jesse Metcalfe as Christopher Ewing and Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing in the new Dallas. (TNT)

By Ashley Jude CollieSpecial to the Star

Sun., Jan. 27, 2013

Ever genial Patrick Duffy is speaking from the set of the legendary and brash television soap Dallas, which has found new life 35 years after it debuted in 1978.

Duffy, 63, who continues to play Bobby Ewing, can’t hide the grin on his face for any number of reasons. He gets to perform on the granddaddy of all modern TV soaps, which premieres its second new season Jan. 28 on Bravo (and TNT in the U.S.), and which Time magazine listed as one of the “100 best TV shows of all time.”

Duffy laughs out loud. “One of this season’s themes is that ‘backstabbing never felt so good,’ so you’ll get the famous Ewing double-cross, insult, mischievous grin . . . and cliffhanger or two. So expect more of the same. Fans want to be titillated and surprised: ‘Oh my God, I never saw that coming.’”

Playing on one of the longest lasting full-hour prime-time dramas in American TV history has given Duffy iconic status, for which he’s eternally grateful.

“I’m playing the same character for almost 35 years now and it’s very seldom people get to do that. It’s not playing Hamlet when you’re 20 and then 30, and then if you can squeeze it in you try to play Hamlet at 50. I started playing Bobby when he was 30 and now he’s 64, and it’s fascinating to play a character that actually ages and matures.

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“My character arc is built in. All credit to Cynthia Cidre and her writing staff. They’re very careful about honouring the reality of what we’re doing in this renewed series. They’ve done a smooth transition, everyone has aged and new life has been brought in.”

The original Dallas revolved around the longtime rivalry between the wealthy Ewing and Barnes families, and was centred on the scheming of oil tycoon J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) and on the interactions of his family, including brother Bobby.

Today’s series, which debuted its first season in 2012, seamlessly picks up that thread and now revolves around two young Ewing hunks: John Ross (Josh Henderson), the son of J.R. and Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), and Bobby’s adopted son Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe). The Ewings are still at it and, as Duffy explains, “It’s like the Hatfields and McCoys all in the same family.”

And, once again, oil is the backdrop.

“When we started the show, there was the great Oil Embargo, it was the Reagan era, it was flashy in your face consumption. Now, it’s called Ewing Energies, not Ewing Oil. Now electric cars, hybrids, solar are part of our energy lexicon. Oil is still part of it, but energy has taken on a broader definition. But it’s still the No. 1 economic reality, and why it’s so appropriate that this show is back and dealing with those issues.”

But all things must pass, even for delightfully amoral oil barons like J.R. Ewing in TV land. The real life death of Hagman happened last November while they were filming the first few episodes of Season 2.

“When the new series kicked off in 2012, the three of us looked at each other and said, ‘We have to be the luckiest three actors in television.’ And, just before he passed, he told us he had no regrets. He had a motto: Don’t worry, be happy, feel good. He lived exactly that way and that’s a gift.

“Thanks Larry for being a living example of the right way to behave in this world.”

And why does Dallas continue to resonate? Duffy suggests that the new show is the old show but shot in an era of big-screen HD TV not small-box TV. “At its heart, Dallas is about the relationship, eye contact, the looks, the innuendo. And it also shows the panoramic, majestic nature of Texas. It’s a small emotional, close-up show filmed in an elongated wide vista. And today’s technology allows us to serve both masters.”

And he says that fans still talk to him about that infamous shower scene in 1986 when Pam Ewing awakes to find Bobby showering and we discover the whole preceding season was just a dream and Bobby, indeed, was not dead.

“Some still feel it’s the silliest scene ever. And others are just glad that Bobby came back. Second to the ‘Who Shot J.R.?’ cliffhanger scene, it’s one of the more famous moments in television. It’s just a wonderful scene, very funny, the look on my face!”

Duffy’s advice for this season, make a date and kick back for the fun to come.

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